Icon: enlarge
Water cannons in Minsk: The police again cracked down on demonstrators
Photo:
- / AFP
Several thousand people protested in the Belarusian capital Minsk against the swearing-in of head of state Alexander Lukashenko.
The police used water cannons against the demonstrators in the evening.
Dozens of people were arrested and the emergency services were brutal.
The human rights organization Viasna spoke of more than 140 arrests in several cities on Wednesday evening.
Accordingly, numerous people protested against Lukashenko, including in Brest in the far west of the country.
The 66-year-old had himself sworn in for another term in office in the Palace of Independence in Minsk that morning without prior notice.
Unlike in the past, the ceremony was not broadcast on state television.
The Belarusian authorities apparently wanted to prevent further protests.
Icon: enlarge
Took the swearing-in without prior notice: Belarus' head of state Alexander Lukashenko
Photo: Andrei Stasevich / dpa
Mass protests since August
Since the presidential election on August 9, which was accompanied by massive election fraud allegations, in which Lukashenko was confirmed in office according to official information, there have been mass protests in Belarus against the head of state, who has been in power since 1994.
The security forces often crack down on the demonstrators.
The EU did not recognize the election result and is planning sanctions against political leaders in Belarus because of the violence against demonstrators.
On Wednesday evening, the US also announced that it would not recognize Lukashenko as the legitimate head of state.
A spokesman for the State Department in Washington cited electoral fraud as the reason.
According to the official result, the head of state is said to have been re-elected with 80.1 percent of the vote.
The opposition sees Svetlana Tichanovskaya as the winner.
The challenger Lukashenkos left Belarus under pressure from the authorities and went to safety in Lithuania in exile.
Like Lithuania, Poland also eased visas for opposition members from Belarus.
This should enable them to flee from the threat of repression more quickly.
The German government is not planning any measures of this kind. Instead, the Foreign Office appealed to the Belarusian leadership to "immediately stop all violence and repression against peaceful protesters".
Icon: The mirror
hba / AFP / dpa
